Swannyson7's 180g mixed reef

[swannyson7]

I like the rock work. I am to lazy to scrape all my coralline of of my glass. If it isn't blocking my view who cares. By the way, that is a HUGE clarkii.

Yeah, I've had her for about 5 years and she's vicious. Drawn blood on me a few times when my hand is near any of the nems and bullies new fish too. I really want that Clarkii out of there, but can't catch it with a net or trap. Someday it'll be replaced with a pair of snowflakes...

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Yeah, I've had her for about 5 years and she's vicious. Drawn blood on me a few times when my hand is near any of the nems and bullies new fish too. I really want that Clarkii out of there, but can't catch it with a net or trap. Someday it'll be replaced with a pair of snowflakes...

Yeah my percula clown is like that as well...not quite as big but still super mean. I am just thankful not able to draw blood...but it still freaks me out every time. I am constantly poking him away. Hours of trying to make things look better and we have ungrateful fish...sheeessh!

 

[Paul_N]

Tank is looking great! Cleaning the back glass is something I always had trouble getting motivated to do so I will make sure I have some rock to cover it...lol

I really like the aquascape with the three separate structures.

 

[xmetalfan99]

Yeah, I've had her for about 5 years and she's vicious. Drawn blood on me a few times when my hand is near any of the nems and bullies new fish too. I really want that Clarkii out of there, but can't catch it with a net or trap. Someday it'll be replaced with a pair of snowflakes...

That is why I don't like clarkiis and never recommend them to people at work. Getting attacked by a fish when doing maintance is not fun at all.

 

[swannyson7]

Today I attempted to add the arch that I've been wanting for a while and found it almost impossible to accomplish without screwing up my flow due to the growth of the corals. Unfortunately, I'm about out of room to mount all these frags I have on my frag racks, so something needed to be done. I ended up making a bit of an arch, but it entirely behind the right island. I still have quite a bit of baserock left over, so if I get ambitious, I might make an arch that goes from the new structure, over both MP10s in back and have it come down behind the left island...only time will tell. Here's a couple pics.... sorry for the poor quality, they're under the actinics again:

It stands out like a sore thumb without the coralline, but I'm pretty happy with the way it looks. Hard to capture in the pics, but it seems to give the tank a bit of depth with the cave in back.

I also ordered a couple magnetic structures from the Alternative Reef today to conceal the MP40s and the first should be here sometime next week. I'll be sure to post some pics when they come!

 

[gar732]

I have that shelf rock and I'm not going to use all of it. It's thinner so it may work better over the vortech. If your interested it's yours, Let me know. And by the way if you are still feeling ambitious I have plenty of coraline algae on the back of my tank.

 

[xmetalfan99]

It is amazing how white dry rock looks next to LR covered in coralline. Looks good to me.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Today I attempted to add the arch that I've been wanting for a while and found it almost impossible to accomplish without screwing up my flow due to the growth of the corals. Unfortunately, I'm about out of room to mount all these frags I have on my frag racks, so something needed to be done. I ended up making a bit of an arch, but it entirely behind the right island. I still have quite a bit of baserock left over, so if I get ambitious, I might make an arch that goes from the new structure, over both MP10s in back and have it come down behind the left island...only time will tell. Here's a couple pics.... sorry for the poor quality, they're under the actinics again:
It stands out like a sore thumb without the coralline, but I'm pretty happy with the way it looks. Hard to capture in the pics, but it seems to give the tank a bit of depth with the cave in back.

I also ordered a couple magnetic structures from the Alternative Reef today to conceal the MP40s and the first should be here sometime next week. I'll be sure to post some pics when they come!

Hey Swanny - I think it looks like you did a good job. Definitely stands out but it will be covered in no time. looking forward to see the magnetic structures too.

 

[swannyson7]

Thanks guys. Not quite the look I was going for, but at least it gives me a place to mount some more stuff. I still have a bit of baserock sitting around, so I might make an arch from the new structure over the MP10s and have it come down behind the left island.

I have that shelf rock and I'm not going to use all of it. It's thinner so it may work better over the vortech. If your interested it's yours, Let me know. And by the way if you are still feeling ambitious I have plenty of coraline algae on the back of my tank.

I might take you up on that, but first I have to get the motivation to do some more aquascaping.

 

[swannyson7]

Started building my arch with acrylic rods and the cement from Marco rocks. Here's how it looks so far:

I've got a ton of rubble sitting around, so I'm going to attach some of it with superglue before I put it in the tank to conceal the cement used to bond the structure. Here's a little artist's conception of what it will hopefully look like once it's in the tank:

Sorry for the bad pics, they were taken with my phone after the LEDs turned off for the day.

 

[Akwarius]

Started building my arch with acrylic rods and the cement from Marco rocks. Here's how it looks so far:

I've got a ton of rubble sitting around, so I'm going to attach some of it with superglue before I put it in the tank to conceal the cement used to bond the structure. Here's a little artist's conception of what it will hopefully look like once it's in the tank:

Sorry for the bad pics, they were taken with my phone after the LEDs turned off for the day.

I say go for it! Then I wont be the only person with an archway tank on this forum. Just watch out for the shadow that things going to cast.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Omg just the artist rendition had me excitied...just one question, the corals below i realize are sps - would this block lot of the light??

 

[swannyson7]

Omg just the artist rendition had me excitied...just one question, the corals below i realize are sps - would this block lot of the light??

The arch is only about 3 inches front to back. The left island is about 6 inches from the back glass and the middle island has about 3 inches, so it wouldn't really shade anything except possibly my scripps. To be honest, I'd be happy if that was shadowed and it's growth was stunted a bit. I've got 450w of LED and 468w of T5s on individual reflectors, so there should still be plenty of light hitting anything there from the side without an issue. If worst comes to worst, I could just move the colony onto the arch if it's not getting enough light.

 

[Akwarius]

The arch is only about 3 inches front to back. The left island is about 6 inches from the back glass and the middle island has about 3 inches, so it wouldn't really shade anything except possibly my scripps. To be honest, I'd be happy if that was shadowed and it's growth was stunted a bit. I've got 450w of LED and 468w of T5s on individual reflectors, so there should still be plenty of light hitting anything there from the side without an issue. If worst comes to worst, I could just move the colony onto the arch if it's not getting enough light.

I see, didnt realize that it was going so far back from the pic. The t5's with individual reflectors should make up for the shade created by the single point source light of the leds. That's how I used to have mine lit.

 

[swannyson7]

Yeah, it will be leaning against the back glass, so I don't foresee any issues with lighting. I think the only problem I may run into is a lack of flow. Might have to bite the bullet and grab that 3rd MP40 or upgrade one of my MP40s to an MP60 in the near future.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Yeah, it will be leaning against the back glass, so I don't foresee any issues with lighting. I think the only problem I may run into is a lack of flow. Might have to bite the bullet and grab that 3rd MP40 or upgrade one of my MP40s to an MP60 in the near future.

Woohoo more MP's...lol nothing like more vortechs! Glad that lighting probably wont be an issue...looking forward to it becoming a reality!

 

[swannyson7]

Well after fooling around with the arch a bit, it just didn't look right in the tank, so it's currently on hold until I get some ambition to try again. I did a bit reaquascaping on the right side of the tank to spread out some of the SPS that was getting to close to eachother and put some frags on the new pile of rock behind the right island. Here's a pic of the new layout.

I also got a piece from the Alternative Reef to conceal my left MP40 and it looks awesome!! Scott's in the procecss of making another one for the right MP40 so I'll post up pics as soon as I get it. It gives the tank a much more natural look with the Vortech hidden and also allowed me to get rid of one of my frag racks.

And I finally think I beat the Bryopsis problem I was having in my frag tank. The acrylic racks I made were blocking too much flow, so I trimmed about 1/2" off of each side to allow water to flow around the racks a bit better. Currently, I have a MJ1200, a Petco powerhead, and a Aquaclear 400gph powerhead for flow in addition to the return from the Mag3. I've been algae free for about a week, so I think I'm in the clear.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Swanny - Sweet piece covering the MP40, nice incognito look!! Congrats on beating the bryposis too.

 

[Aquaph8]

Swanny, I liked the pic with the arch but I think its gonna look funny for a while no madder what you do. Either way its gonna look white and outta place. Hows that cement to work with? Your tank is looking really good and your corals have real nice color, cant wait to see it progress. Nice job.

 

[PurpleMonster]

Yo wassup bro i finally made it over here lol got the boot from you know where!!

Tank is looking great man, how is the purple monster doing? sorry we were not able to meet up for a frag. Hopefully yours is doing good!